Picking a Phone with a Great Camera

What makes a camera good these days? Don’t all good cameras have a high megapixel count? Why does the Galaxy S7 have a 12MP camera, when the S6 had a 16MP camera?
Camera technology in today’s mobile devices is absolutely incredible. Seriously, less than 5 years ago, the standard camera is practically unusable compared to today’s standards. You can even shoot 4K video on most flagship phone cameras these days, which is just insane.
So what makes a camera good? Is it how many megapixels it has, or maybe how many cameras are actually a part of the fixture? Or, is it a combination of software and hardware that optimizes it all. The answer, is sort of.
First, the sensor, or what actually captures the light of a picture. The bigger the sensor, the bigger the pixels, and the bigger the pixels, the more light you capture. And, of course, the more light you capture, the better your picture can be. The Galaxy S7 is a great example of this. It’s selling point with it’s camera is the fact that it takes good low-light pictures. This is because it has a much bigger sensor than most of the competition, therefore it can take in more light, and produce good quality images, both during the day, and in low-light situations.
Next is the software that processes the image taken. Most phones these days have good processors that can render photos and video without using a ton of your device’s resources.Most phones can process HDR (High Dynamic range Imaging) photos on the spot, making your photo look clearer, and not have any one color wash out another. Depending on the phone, this feature can either make the photo look more real, or less real. Of course, your camera has manual options as well, to adjust the aperture, shutter, and many other things.
Finally, the megapixel count also plays a role. Megapixels are what digital images are made up of, one megapixel is equal to one million pixels, which is a ton. So, obviously the more megapixels, the more detail a photo can have. This, combined with the sensor, and software, can make photos look as good as handheld dedicated cameras.
Some phone companies have been doing amazing things with using two separate cameras on a phone, such as the LG G5 and V20, and the iPhone 7 Plus. Others, such as the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, focus on how good their low-light pictures are. Every phone camera has something it does really well, and something that needs work. But, all flagship phones these days have incredible cameras, and you will likely find what you are looking for if you come check out the devices in person!